View full sizeSinger-songwriter Sarah Blacker is one of this year's featured performers of the third annual "Muses in the Vineyard" festival in White Township.Courtesy Photo

The festival, Brian McCloskey says, covers a wide range of styles -- rock, blues, folk and Americana -- spread out over the course of the weekend (with 20 acts scheduled to perform.) And, of course, wine.

"When it comes to music festivals, we're big fans," Brian McCloskey says. "It was a pipe dream for about a year before we started getting serious."

Brian McCloskey says when they started looking into putting together a music festival, many of their favorite artists were women. The idea was to merge an all-women music lineup with a vineyard setting to help distance Muses in the Vineyard from other spring and summer music festivals in the area.

"We really wanted to do something and have an impact without stepping on anyone else's toes and create our own niche," he says.

Saturday will mark Blacker's second time at the festival. She performed at the inaugural event in 2012. "I'm honored and excited to be coming back," Blacker says. "This (festival) in particular is sort of a homegrown effort."

Brian McCloskey and his brother got their start by staging house concerts in Belvidere and Upper Mount Bethel Township.

"We've insisted on a very high level of performances and that hasn't really changed," Brian McCloskey says. "There has been enough attendance to encourage us to keep on going and keep doing it."

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IF YOU GO

The Muses in the Vineyard festival will be held 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at Four Sisters Winery, 783 Route 519, White Township.

Tickets can be purchased here. Proceeds will benefit The Epilepsy Foundation of New Jersey.